


Incident

by AndInThoseMoments



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Awesome Phil Coulson, F/F, Kid Fic, Kid Natasha, Protective Pepper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-20
Updated: 2013-02-20
Packaged: 2017-11-30 00:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/693079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndInThoseMoments/pseuds/AndInThoseMoments
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every time the Avengers are called out, Pepper tries her best not to think of the consequences which could befall them. One day, the inevitable happens, and Coulson is the one who comes to break the news that there were some... unexpected consequences. Knowing that she cannot protect the one she loves, Pepper instead is forced to wait, and to trust, with far too much time to think about what it was that made her lover who she is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Incident

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Mentions of canonically bad childhoods.
> 
> Thanks to Shadowhaloedangel again for betaing and help with the summary.

Pepper tensed slightly at the knock on the door. She always worried about those, when Natasha was away, especially since JARVIS had only just informed her that Agent Coulson was in the building. There had been a battle earlier, and JARVIS had been oddly silent on her lover's well being. That was a bad sign.

Coulson's face was impassive, but when he spoke his voice was gentle.  
"Miss Potts... Pepper. There's been... an incident. I want to reassure you that Natasha is alive, and currently under observation, but..."  
"I want to see her." Pepper insisted immediately. She didn't like the way Coulson was speaking, how much he hadn't said. She expected him to deny her requests. Instead, he hesitated, and then nodded.

"You can... but I can't allow you to talk to her."  
Nightmare scenarios crowded Pepper's mind. Foremost among them was the idea that Natasha's training might have resurfaced. That she might have been a sleeper agent the whole time. She knew that idea scared Natasha, when so little did. Coulson's hand found hers, and he squeezed her gently, leading her to the waiting car and sitting in the back with her. There was an unknown SHIELD agent driving. Pepper was a little comforted by that - it meant Clint was with Natasha, regardless of what the situation was.

"Pepper..."  
"Just tell me what happened. As much as you can. I get that a lot of it will be classified, it always is, but...I want to know what has happened."  
Coulson looked at her, and then nodded, smartly.  
"We were fighting a magic user. She voluntarily put herself in his way, allowing him to get a direct hit so that she could incapacitate him."

She thought that over. There was only one question that mattered to her right then.  
"What kind of magic user?"  
"He could cause people to become younger." Coulson answered after a moment. "He has turned Natasha, several other agents and about a dozen civilians into ten year olds."

Pepper braced herself, as that thought ran over her.  
"She voluntarily..."  
"She did." Coulson took a deep breath, and then smiled weakly. "She told me that I had to be good at speaking Russian. Then she...threw herself in harm's way. As she was still on comms, she followed my orders."

The logic of the action was blinding to Pepper. There were six Avengers. Thor, due to his species elongated lifespan, was still a baby at twelve, if magic would even work that way for him. Steve would be sickly and vulnerable. Tony would be obnoxious, and would be confused by his own tech - not to mention his suit would be so much too big for him that he'd be rattling inside it. Bruce and Clint would both be frightened, and more likely to run than to fight.

And then there was Natasha. She was already trained to kill at ten, she knew what she was doing, and she was good at it. She had murdered a dozen people by that age. She followed orders without question, and was born to kill. If anyone had to be turned into a ten year old, it had to be her.

Pepper nodded hesitantly, imagining how frightening it must have been for Natasha to suddenly find herself at ten.   
"Does she remember?"  
"I'm afraid not. She remembers nothing other than Russia. During the battle, and in the immediate aftermath, I was able to control her. However, she soon saw through the lies I've told her, realised this wasn’t Russia, that I wasn’t her handler, and she tried to attack. Took out five of our guys, but no fatalities. She is imprisoned under armed guard in a holding cell."

Pepper nodded hesitantly, and the car parked outside SHIELD. Coulson led her wordlessly to the medical wing, where a group of children (some of them in oversized SHIELD uniforms, others in civvy clothes) were being talked to by a doctor. They walked past that though, to the glass-walled, high security cell where Natasha was held, with two armed guards at her door. 

Pepper was startled by how thin she was, how lost, and how frightened. Natasha was always petite, but now she looked swamped by her uniform. Pepper had always been protective of her lovers, and seeing Natasha now reminded her of how desperate she had been before to keep Tony safe from his past, how much she still wanted to keep him safe now that they were simply friends. 

Natasha's eyes widened, and she raised one palm to the glass, smiling at her. Pepper couldn’t stop herself smiling back.

"You can go up, but I can't let her out. She could escape, or manipulate you, and then we've got a soviet assassin running around." Coulson admitted. "Once we've worked out how to repair this, you'll get her back." 

Pepper nodded, wanting her own Natasha here. The child was just looking at her. Natasha had told her some about her past - not as much as Clint knew, but enough to understand how awful this must be for her. Natasha must be expecting to be tortured, felt she had been kidnapped by her enemies. She was looking calm, but Pepper could tell when it was an act, when she hadn’t quite perfected what she would manage later. Pepper had often wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around Natasha when she had been younger, to protect her from all the damage the world had caused. This was not the way she wanted to do it.

Pepper raised her hand to the glass, mouthing “Hello”. The girl smiled, looking up at her, waving. Pepper could understand how Natasha had been lethal in the past. She looked so innocent, so utterly beyond suspicion. Pepper wanted to ask Coulson to hand her over, but she knew that wouldn’t be safe. That it was just what the young Natasha, the murderer who believed she had to kill those that had taken her, wanted her to think.

It would have been so easy to be taken in by those frightened wide eyes, that soft hopeful smile. There was so much of Natasha, her Natasha, visible in this young girl. But none of it was true, and there was no way that she could help her right now. She couldn't just magically fix this - hopefully it would be magically fixed, but that was beyond Pepper's control.

Coulson's hand tightened slightly on her shoulder, and he began to lead her away. She stumbled, not sure she wanted to leave, but relaxed when one of the armed guards winked at her, and she realised that it was Clint, standing guard with a gun, ready to ensure his best friend didn't lose herself entirely. If anyone had to be there doing that, she was glad that it was him. She trusted him, and more than that, she knew Natasha trusted him as well.

That didn't mean it was easy to walk away from the girl, who was now sobbing quietly in fear. Coulson took her to his office, where it was quiet. "She's acting... we've done everything we can to make her comfortable. Clint's even been slipping her tidbits of information, so that she believes she’ll have something to report back, and that seems to have helped..." He guided Pepper into a seat, rubbing her shoulders, seeming to realise how very frightened she was. "She will be okay Pepper. We've got...we've got the best people working on fixing this."  
"And if you can't?"  
"Pepper, she saved a lot of lives today by putting herself in the firing line. And I know you want to go and hold her, to protect her. I feel the same, Natasha's like a daughter to me. But we have to respect what she is."

Pepper nodded.   
"How are the rest of the team?"  
"Fine other than some bumps and grazes. They're back in the tower. Natasha saved them as well."  
Pepper took a deep breath, trying to gather herself. She wanted to just curl up and cry, but that wouldn't work, wouldn't be enough. Natasha deserved better than that.   
"I could really do with a coffee."

Coulson nodded, and went to fetch both of them a drink. Pepper smiled weakly. Coulson had become her closest friend after she had begun her relationship with Natasha. Thanks to Clint, he was the only one who could understand what it was like to have to look after Tony and Natasha - Clint sometimes appeared to be their worst qualities combined, and that was a terrifying thought. But right now she resented him - if it was Clint that had been de-aged, he would have been being spoilt rotten by the rest of the avengers, given cookies and played with. He wouldn't be alone in a cell, terrified and waiting for a chance to kill. 

She knew those thoughts weren't helpful, but they nagged away at the inside of her mind, leaving her feeling sick. She calmed only when Coulson returned with the drink, and a slight smile.   
"Doctor Strange is beginning to look into it. He's starting with the SHIELD agents, then the civilians. When he's worked out how to reverse it, and we're certain it works... then he can help Natasha."

They couldn't take the risk of her reverting later, so she couldn’t be fixed until they knew it worked. That was clear in Coulson's words, even as he tried to soften it. Part of Pepper wanted to scream, but she understood. Of course she did. And regardless, this had been Natasha's choice. She had to respect that.

Coulson offered her a room for the night, and she accepted - she couldn't face going back to an empty home, knowing Natasha was curled up afraid in a cell, far too young to understand that help was coming. Coulson produced a bag of Natasha's clothes, including a pair of flannel pyjamas that Pepper slipped into, and she curled up in bed, her eyes closed, wishing she wasn't alone.

"Miss Potts..." Coulson's voice woke her the next morning, his hand gentle on her shoulder before he moved away. "Doctor Strange has managed to return the SHIELD agents to their normal selves. They're currently undergoing psych tests, but if it is all clear...we should have Natasha again by lunchtime."  
"I want to see her."

The walk back to the cell was quiet, but Pepper now had a reason to hope. She was so grateful for that. She didn't want to lose her lover forever, and this was a positive sign. Natasha was curled up in a corner of the cell, staring at the guards with concern, but once she saw Pepper her demeanour changed, and she smiled, getting up and skipping over to the glass, gesturing and waving excitedly. The knowledge that this was all an act stung slightly, but Pepper kept smiling at her, trying not to make the girl worry more.

It seemed to be working. Clint had left, but when he returned after a couple of minutes, he embraced Pepper tightly.  
"She'll be okay." He muttered, whispering into her ear. "Psych hasn't found any problems yet. So just a few more hours. She'll need a thorough assessment, and will be kept here for probably another week. But she'll be herself."

Pepper's knees went weak with relief, and she collapsed forwards against Clint. He caught her easily, and sat her down beside the cell. She thanked him, staying in place when Doctor Strange arrived, watching with curiosity as the air grew thick with spells. But her gaze never left the redheaded girl in the holding cell, who was watching with terror, trying to back away. She couldn't leave her, couldn't abandon her or look away, not right now.

Finally, the spell reached her, and before her eyes the girl unfolded, maturing, changing as memories were unlocked. It was like watching a dozen years of her lover’s life pass in as many seconds, as she watched her become the woman she recognised. Then it was done, and Natasha fell forwards onto the floor, her body shaking with exhaustion from the transformation. The magic user left without a backwards glance.

Clint let himself into the cell, pulling Natasha into his arms, checking her eyes. Pepper went to join him, but Coulson stopped her.   
“We don’t know yet.”  
She swallowed and nodded, watching Natasha holding onto Clint, heard them speaking quickly in a language she didn’t know. Natasha smiled after a moment, and turned to Pepper, beckoning her over.

“We don’t know…” Coulson warned, but Pepper shook her head.  
“I know.” 

With that, she headed into the cell, pulling Natasha close and stroking her hair. Natasha held her in return, shivering with relief.  
“That was so brave.”  
“I didn’t have a choice. He was going to go after the government. They can’t do their job if they’re ten…” Natasha answered with a weak smile.

“But you could…” Pepper whispered, gazing into Natasha’s eyes, trying not to let the pain of that fact detract from all that Natasha had achieved. She’d saved them from chaos, but only because of the price she had paid as a child. When she’d been sent back to that hell, to that fear, Pepper hadn’t even been able to help.

“Yeh.” Natasha leant in for a kiss. “I could.” She squeezed Pepper’s hand, and then Clint laughed slightly. Both women turned to look at him in unison.  
“What?”

Clint grinned.  
“She’s legal now.”  
Pepper smiled to herself as Natasha launched herself at Clint, and he started to run away. Besides her, Coulson just shook his head fondly and settled back to watch his agents, hand resting on Pepper’s.   
“Maybe we should get another coffee. They’ll be fighting for a while.”


End file.
